Linux installation on Compaq V2306AP

[Sebastien Chouillet]

I have recently purchased a Compaq V2306ap notebook, and have been trying for a week to set it up with a Linux system.
note: I am a Linux newbie.
I have tried (unsuccessfully) Fedora, Ubuntu, Kubuntu and several other distros, until yesterday, I managed to get SuSE to install and work correctly.
Everything seems to work fine (not the wireless network card, but I'm not using it yet) except the Sound. YaST does not recognize the sound card at all.
I had to set up the boot with a number of restrictive options in relation to pci (pci=off, noacpi, things like that - I can provide the full list of kernel parameters if you require them) or the system would not even start correctly.
I have yet to deactivate as many of these boot parameters as I can, but I would like some direction as to what to be looking for in order to get my system fully online asap.
Thanks for your help!